Finally, here is a movie that
reveals Wal-Mart as the evil hell
that we've always suspected it was! OK, in the new movie, One
Hour Photo, they call it SavMart but we know better. The oppressive
ambiance created in a local Wal-Mart
store is just part of what is good about One Hour Photo. The
action centers on an employee (Robin Williams) who runs the photo kiosk
at the store. He is single, has no friends and lives his life vicariously
through the photos, he develops that reveal other people's lives.
He has become attached to one family, in particular, who regularly leaves
their photos to be developed. At first, Williams is just over-the-counter
friendly with the mother (Connie Nielsen) and her young son (Dylan Smith)
as they drop off rolls of film. But, Williams is a man on the edge
of the precipice. And when this idyllic family starts to fall apart,
Williams feels compelled to take a more active part in their lives.
The husband (Michael Vartan) has become distant from his family, first
because of the pressures of his job and then when he begins an affair with
a co-worker. It's hard to believe that if you were married to Connie
Nielsen that you would even look at another woman, let alone have an affair
but going to the movies is all about suspending disbelief. Williams
makes sure that Nielsen, who is best known for her role as the Emperor's
more than sister in Gladiator,
finds out about her husband's affair by switching rolls of film.
He is obsessive about his work and eventually gets fired by the store manager
(Gary Cole) for making extra prints of his favorite family. This
sets off a death spiral as Williams is now free to concentrate on punishing
Vartan for ruining his ``family."

Robin Williams is great is this
part. Robin Williams can be best described by Walt Whitman's lines
from Song
of Myself, ``Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" Williams is all over the map
in his comedy. He can be really great in dramatic roles when
he has strongly controlled direction or he can be horribly out of control.
He was wonderful in Awakenings,
and Good Will Hunting,
but Patch Adams still gives
me bad flashbacks. In One Hour Photo, Williams is extremely
self-contained. Everything in his life is turned back inside himself
but he is only holding back an inevitable explosion. The rest of
the cast are good but they are all just two-dimensional representations
seen in photos through Williams' eyes. This film was written and
directed by Mark Romanek, who hasn't done much previously. He does
a nice job of creating Williams inner world. We see everything through
Williams eyes and experience his daydreams and nightmares. We feel
the world pressing in on us just as Williams does. After the up-and-down
experiences I've had seeing Robin Williams' movies, I didn't
know whether I wanted to see One Hour Photo. But it is
definitely worth seeing. When you see Williams climbing the walls
on David Letterman, it is easy to forget that he has been nominated four
times for Oscars (Good Morning,
Vietnam, Dead Poets Society,
The Fisher King, and Good
Will Hunting), winning for the last one. He may get another nomination
here.